Romance Scams: What You Need to Know About Them

Romance scams are a major problem during the winter months. As many singles start to look for relationship some might fall into the traps of overseas catfish. We’ll go over what you need to watch out for to protect your heart and your financials.

What Are Romance Scams?

A romance scam is when a criminal poses as someone they are not. They do this in order to defraud and solicit money from a person who they are in “love” with. These scammers are usually overseas and they will steal the photos of military personnel in order to create a believable story of being deployed and unable to meet in person.

Over weeks or months the scammer will build a relationship with the person that they are targeting. They will profess their love for the person and they will weave a tale of woe surrounding their current life circumstances. They scammer often poses as someone widowed, living overseas far from family and friends.

Once they feel that the person that they are trying to scam is in love, tragedy will strike. They will claim that they’ve had an accident or lost their paperwork. Whatever the excuse something will happen that will leave them stranded and their victim will be their only salvation.

They will ask for money to be wired to them and once they’ve taken the person for all they’re worth they will disappear and move on to another target.

How To Avoid Romance Scams

When meeting people online try to meet them somewhere public in person within the first few days or weeks of chatting with them. If someone is reluctant to meet in person or makes up lots of excuses as to why they can’t meet you in person it’s best to move on. Don’t get emotionally invested in someone who can’t be there for you!

You can also run phone number lookups on your new love interests. This isn’t to stalk them or anything like that, it’s just to verify that the person you’re talking to is who they say they are.